Synopsis
L.A. screenwriter David Sumner relocates with his wife, Amy, to her hometown in the deep South. There, while tensions build between them, a brewing conflict with locals becomes a threat to them both.
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Cast
- James MarsdenDavid Sumner
- Kate BosworthAmy Sumner
- Alexander SkarsgårdCharlie Venner
- Dominic PurcellJeremy Niles
- Laz AlonsoDeputy John Burke
- Willa HollandJanice Heddon
- James WoodsTom Heddon
- Walton GogginsDaniel Niles
- Rhys CoiroNorman
- Billy LushChris
Recommendations
- 88
Miami Herald
Straw Dogs is an artful provocation - a meditation on masculinity and societal mores in the guise of an explosive thriller. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Rod Lurie has made a first-rate film of psychological warfare, and yes, I thought it was better than Peckinpah's. Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsgard are all persuasive, and although James Woods has played a lot of evil men during his career, this one may be the scariest. - 75
Rolling Stone
Peckinpah rubbed our noses in the bloodlust. Lurie invites objectivity. He gets strong, complex performances from actors who won't be painted into corners. - 50
Variety
Though competently crafted, Rod Lurie's wholly unnecessary 2011 remake is a film with few notions of its own, and representative of its time only in the commercial sense that home-invasion thrillers are now more prevalent at the multiplex. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Whereas Peckinpah managed not only to raise hackles but to get under the skin, Lurie manages only the former, which reduces the material to the level of sensation-mongering. - 38
Orlando Sentinel
An exploitation picture built on redneck cliches and big city liberal outrage, it's not all bad. But it is a pretty unpleasant wallow in the obvious. - 38
Slant Magazine
Despite Lurie's part-time efforts to lend the film some sense of place, the impulse to hot-ify everything from Peckinpah's considerably more earthbound original ultimately outpaces his meager good intentions. - 25
Chicago Tribune
It's miscast, barely functional in terms of technique, stupid and unnecessary. Other than that….
